Luxman L505u . . . why not?

Thanks Brian, I am still waiting for the Feb issue.
Mark

Please post a detailed report after your Luxman arrives!

I have had my L-590A II for a week now and I not only am very pleased but pleasantly surprised. I say surprised because it far exceeds my expectations.

My main goal from switching from my McIntosh MC402 and C46 was hopes of a better match with my speakers; I have heard my speakers at a show where they sounded better than I had at home, by quite a bit frankly. My thoughts of change was based on various setups I know the founder used with them.

The clarity/transparancy of this amp is far greater than any others I have owned and the bass is far superior to what I had with the Mac gear, in fact both the bass and transparency are simply incredible, I cannot over state either enough. One could easily confuse the two setups as having the reverse in wattage.

There a songs even played via my tuner where I simply amazed, including hearing details I'd never knew existed.

The Mac gear is laid back and I have accused some past speakers of being recessed in the midrange, where I now think it had more to do with the Mac gear. (I sure would like to have some past speakers back to hear with this amp.) I don't like sounding so critical of the Mac and that isn't my intent, it is just that the Luxman is that much better. (I usually like to say here, IMO, but man, there is no denying that the Luxman is better. Now there "may" be some things that some would prefer with the Mac gear, but that doesn't negate the obvious.)

Great dynamics with the Luxman and I was hoping to get more depth using Class A, think 3D, which it achieves.

The L-590A II is a great piece indeed. I will say that it is very revealing and if one has speakers on the bright side, it'll show it and I suspect it could be too much for you. Pair it well and you will be rewarded.

Brian

Oiy! but the price! that's quite a leap from the 505u...
I bet it's lovely...

Curious how the 507u will turn out....

After reading this chain, I decided to do a retail test as well.

I brought out four pieces of music: Paul Kelly, May 1992, Spoon's Ga Ga Ga, Booker T's Potato Head, and MGMT's debut album.

I used Luxman's CD player to standardize the input. I then heard the Luxman's 507 and 590s with the D-8 CD player, versus Leben 300 SX and 600, driving Devore Nines speakers in NYC last week.

Devore tends to sound more relaxed rather than forward, are musical forgiving, and somewhat efficient. They work well in small room setups.

Overall, I was very impressed by the level of detail by both brands and all the "musical" attributes you associate between the brands around a Japanese sound. Everything sounded acceptable to my ears--you could have long listening sessions with both. Also, it should be noted that there is a significant price difference between the integrated amps, so you have to factor that Luxman costs thousands more.

What sets apart the Luxman brand is its high slew rates. I can't think of a better product that produces the magical quality of sustain and slam to give the music real dynamic character. This is especially present in the AB amps like the 509. The Leben has a warmer tonality, more mid to high range, but really excelled with organic recordings like Booker T. This was constant for both the 300 and 600 models. The Luxmans were able to play all music extremely well, including the cheesy electronica of MGMT, with more presence, end to end. I loved the 590 for presence of sound stage and natural timbre.

I think the Leben sounded better from a headphone amp perspective. I brought a pair of Sony 7506s and found I was very immersed with the overall sound.

I have a Luxman N100 valve system in Japan (my son lives in Tokyo and I have business interests there) and the Leben seems a tad richer. With that said, I would rank Luxman 590 as the best sounding amp in the shootout. I view Leben as a better "starter" system if money is an issue, but Luxman is clearly in a class by itself.